90pc votes cast in six Dhaka polling centres

Poll result sheets of the Election Commission say each of at least six polling stations witnessed over 90 percent of its votes being cast in the recently held Dhaka south and north city corporation elections, eliciting astonishment from experts.

Scrutinising centre-wise results, it has been noticed that in these centres Awami League-backed mayor candidates got amazingly higher numbers of votes than their rival BNP-backed candidates. 

Of them, Uttara High School and College centre of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Maniknagar Model High School centre of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) witnessed 97.26 percent and 97.35 percent respectively.

Besides, over 80 percent of total votes were cast in 26 polling stations in the two city corporations, according to poll result sheets of the Election Commission.

However, the average vote casting rate in the two city corporation election is around 42.93 percent, the result documents say.

Three city corporation elections in Dhaka and Chittagong held on April 28 witnessed numerous irregularities including ballot box stuffing and harassment of journalists. BNP boycotted the elections halfway though voting hours.

The AL-backed mayoral candidate of DNCC Annisul Huq got 2,122 votes in the Uttara High School and College centre while BNP-backed candidate Tabith Awal got 307 votes there.

In Maniknagar Model High School centre, AL-backed mayoral candidate of DSCC Sayeed Khokon bagged 1,611 votes while BNP-backed candidate Tabith Awal got 381 votes there.

In BHBFC Adarsha Uccha Biddaloy at Uttara sector 8, Annisul Huq got 1,359 votes and Tabith got 243 votes at the same polling centre where 84.30 percent votes were cast.

In Paris International School at north Goran, Khokon bagged 1,409 votes and Abbas got 198 votes. Around 93.08 votes were cast there.

In Kamalapur School and College centre, Khokon bagged 1,337 votes and Abbas got 318 votes. Around 94.53 percent votes were cast there.

About this, former election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said, “On the basis of my experience, I can say it is impossible to cast 80 or 90 percent of votes in local government elections in Bangladesh.”

“Each voter has to vote in three ballot papers in local government elections and it takes around 4 to 5 minutes on an average. If we calculate the time limit and number of voters, we can see that a maximum of 50 percent of votes can be cast in a polling centre,” he told The Daily Star.  

“So, it seems huge vote rigging took place in these polling centres,” viewed Sakhawat.

Eminent local government expert Dr Tofail Ahmed said such “abnormally” high rates of votes being cast raise questions on whether vote rigging or ballot box stuffing occurred at these polling stations. The EC should look into the matter, he said.

EC Secretary Sirazul Islam told The Daily Star, “As the poll result has been published in official gazette, we have no option to bring any change in polling result. But we will look into the matter for our administrative purpose that how such high rate of vote casting took place at these centres.”